The present disclosure relates to data storage and retrieval methods and, more specifically, to data deduplication.
Data retrieval methods can involve data storage and data compression. Stored data often contains duplicate copies of data blocks. These duplicate copies take up more storage space than a single copy. Data deduplication is a type of data compression that operates by removing redundant data blocks. Deduplication is used to reduce the redundant storage of files in a shared data storage management system. In many cases, data blocks are identified by hash values in an index and, if the hash value of a redundant block is identified, it can be replaced by a pointer to the appropriate matching data block. These hash values and pointers allow data to be retrieved by users who may share available copies of the data blocks.